


Heat of the Moment

by indevan



Series: Rock Band AU [41]
Category: Dragon Ball
Genre: Alternate Universe - Rock Band, Drunkenness, Fights, Implied/Referenced Cheating, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-02
Updated: 2018-07-02
Packaged: 2019-06-01 13:35:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15144206
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/indevan/pseuds/indevan
Summary: There’s a party later to celebrate the end of the tour and subsequent return of Apetail and Kame Kami but for now, his brother had come home to see his girlfriend, his son, and apparently have Tarble drop this bomb on him





	Heat of the Moment

**Author's Note:**

> [AU timeline!](http://vertigoats.tumblr.com/post/166537761367/since-after-the-first-few-the-fics-in-rock-band)

Tarble shakes his hands out nervously and sighs.  He knows he has to tell someone about this and, right now, the closest person to him that he can tell.  He  _ would _ tell Caulifla--which would eliminate him having to tell his brother himself--but Cabba already confessed to her anyway.  He supposes that it’s only fair since he’s known her far longer, but now the one person he can talk to is his brother. He shifts nervously on the couch in his apartment, wishing that it wasn’t just the two of them (and Trunks, but he isn’t yet three and can’t quite dispense advice).  Bulma, at least, would be a great buffer.

“So.” He draws in a deep breath. “I slept with Cabba.”

Vegeta turns to look at him, but it isn’t until Trunks turns in unison that he realizes that this is probably not the best time to bring it up.  There’s a party later to celebrate the end of the tour and subsequent return of Apetail and Kame Kami but for now, his brother had come home to see his girlfriend, his son, and apparently have Tarble drop this bomb on him.

“Recently?”

He nods. “Yeah.  While you were on tour so...two months ago-ish?”

“Hm.  You still with 16?” He eyes him in that Way of his--the Prince family intimidation that skipped Tarble over--and he shrinks against the back of the couch.

Tarble nods guiltily.  He had been in a flux even before he slept with Cabba, torn between his feelings for his boyfriend and his feelings for Cabba.  Now he’s in an even worse place and he doesn’t know what to do. He cares about 16, of course, but. There’s Cabba. And they had sex.  They had sex, which means he cheated on 16. 16, who is caring and kind and who cheers him up with bird calls. If he cheated on someone like that, what does that say about him?

Vegeta presses his lips together and looks at Trunks.

“What do you think?”

His nephew looks at him with an intense stare not unlike his father’s and it makes him feel even worse.

“Bad Uncle,” he says very seriously.

He sighs. “Thanks, Trunks.”

Vegeta pats his jacket pocket for his pack of cigarettes, but then glances at Trunks and puffs air through his teeth instead.

“Look--I didn’t want you with 16 to begin with,” he says. “But you don’t just fucking cheat on people, Tarble.  If you like Cabba, you should have talked to 16 about  _ before _ you slept with him.”

He’s right and, selfishly, Tarble wonders when  _ he _ became the responsible sibling.

“You’re right.” He sighs.

“Yeah and don’t make me talk like that again.  It sounds nothing like me and I hate it.”

That, finally, dredges up a laugh.

“You’re not wrong.”

\--

Coming to the Monkey’s Paw is always like coming home.  Tonight it’s packed but, yet again, Raditz feels like he’s back at the beginning.  The five of them in this bar, not sure what the hell they were doing. Now they’ve returned triumphant from their  _ third _ tour and.  They’re back here.

He tries not to dwell on it, the weirdness of it all, because he has his fiancé back in his arms.  Lapis seems to have the same idea because he’s pressed against him, rubbing his nose against his chest in a show of affection he’s not normally prone to.

As far as parties go, this one is fairly subdued.  Their nights on the tour got pretty rowdy. It reminds him of this time last year when the same thing happened on their tour with U6.  He looks towards the bar where Turles is drinking from a bottle of beer and talking to Broly about something. At least this time no one overdosed.

“Are you ready to jump into wedding planning?” Lapis asks, dragging his attention back.

“Absolutely not.”

He nods. “I was trying to find things on my own while you were away and it’s all so…straight.”

Raditz wrinkles his nose.  He doesn’t want that. He’s been out since he was thirteen.  His gayness is a huge part of his life experience and personality.  He doesn’t want a wedding that’s just awkwardly retrofitted for two men, but designed for a straight couple.

“We can wait a little,” he continues, “Give you time to adjust.  And, considering I’m not letting you out of bed for the next, oh, three days…”

He grins and pulls him tightly against him.

“Hanging out with Z got boring,” Lapis says.  He’s much more talkative than usual, but he’s also on his third margarita.  Raditz can’t complain. He likes the sound of his voice and how he can feel the vibration of his words against his chest. “He was always popping a vicodin every ten minutes.”

As if summoned, Z comes up and bumps Lapis with his hip.

“Excuse you, it’s Xanax and it’s prescribed.”

Raditz stiffens.  He still doesn’t want to be around Z after the whole “kiss posted all over Instagram” nonsense so he smiles tightly and waits for him to see someone he knows and disappear back into the crowd.

“I do need that time to adjust,” he mutters.

“I know.  I have the incomprehensible texts from the night you and Turles did--what was it?  Cat tranquilizers?”

He smirks, remembering Z’s brief appearance and says, “Excuse you, it was a ketamine and it was prescribed.”

Lapis laughs and tilts his face up, blue eyes sharp and bright even in the darkness of the bar.

“Kiss me.”

And, of course, there’s no arguing with that.

\--

Bulma bumps Tien with her shoulder and grins.  It’s crowded around the table with her, the entirety of Apetail, Yamcha, and Tien around the small table, but they manage.

“So you had fun?” she asks.

Tien looks at them and then nods. “I did.”

Yamcha grins and pulls his boyfriend down so he can kiss him.

“Except the night where we freaked everyone out.” He flashes his movie star grin at Vegeta. “Right, dude?”

Bulma sips her drink and quirks one brow.

“How did you do that?”

She tilts her face towards her boyfriend to see his reaction since Yamcha has just started laughing and is no help.

“We got really wasted after a show and then we realized it was getting close to dawn so we watched the sunrise and then went out and got even more drunk,” he says gruffly.

“We stumbled into the hotel at, like, noon, and everyone thought we were, like, dead in a ditch.” Yamcha howls with laughter.  Tien shakes his head, but--of course--the rest of the boys are cracking up. Even Broly is smiling. Bulma still hasn’t figured him out, their wunderkind little musical genius.  What she  _ has _ figured out, though, are the longing looks he directs at Turles when he thinks the other man isn’t looking.  But matchmaking isn’t her forte and it’s not her business so she leaves them to it.

“What other  _ escapades _ did I miss?” she asks.

Honestly, after hearing it from Vegeta, she thinks she remembers being woken up by him calling her on video chat and Yamcha screaming “The degenerates are here!” while Vegeta seriously informed her that they were spiraling.

Kakarrot drains his beer bottle and clangs it on the table. “Okay, so, there was the time I got Krillin high and he decided he was going to pull a prank on Raditz.”

Turles lets out a loud scream and starts slapping the table in his laughter. “Oh my god, that night.  I thought that poor kid was going to  _ die.” _

“We all forgot how bad my brother’s temper can get,” Kakarrot says. “Also, I was high and it was that or shave Krillin’s head again, but he didn’t take me up on that.”

Bulma cannot believe that these men are all on the other side of their twenties, but she can.  She’s also missed them all, not just Vegeta. They’re his family, just as much as Tarble is and probably more than his dad is.  So, in a way, they’re all her brothers, too. Weird how that works out.

“I was so pissed!” Raditz snaps.

“Pun intended?” Turles is still crowing with laughter, his shoulders visibly shaking under his leather jacket.

“He got in his face.  I honestly haven’t seen him that angry since he and Turles first broke up,” Kakarrot says.

Bulma shakes her head.

“Did he actually pee in his drink?”

“Of course not,” Tien says, finally chiming in. “Krillin’s not--”

“Like us,” Turles finishes cheerfully. “You can say it.  We’ve done fucked up shit in the past to each other.”

Bulma winces, simultaneously seized with the desire to know the details and to never know.

“Like the time I tripled myself when me and Radi were together,” he continues. “It’s why I have to take my lactose intolerance seriously or else he brings it up.”

Raditz nods sagely and she makes the decision that she definitely doesn’t want to know what the details are  _ or _ what “tripling yourself” means.

“What happened while we were gone?” Kakarrot asks with that sweet grin of his. “Any drama?”

Bulma honestly can’t think of any.  It was dreadfully banal, really. She and Chi-Chi hung out more often than not, having their kids play together.  Goten and Trunks are still inseparable and Gohan is far too smart of his own good. Business as usual. She taps her chin, replaying the last four months through her head.

“I got Lazuli drunk and she told me how she wants to get married but not yet because she doesn’t want to be an annoying twin and get married at the same time as her brother.”

Raditz shrugs at this information and takes a sip of his drink. “Just tell her to keep Krillin away from her drinks.”

She feels Vegeta shift next to her as he reaches for his drink.

“My brother slept with Cabba again,” he intones flatly. “He’s freaking out about it.”

Bulma whips her head towards him, eyebrows raised.  He seems fairly nonchalant about his brother apparently cheating on his boyfriend.  Then again, maybe this is what he wants. She knows he isn’t happy with the supposedly “big” age difference of a whopping five years between Tarble and 16.  But--he’s new to being a decent brother and she’s letting him work it out for himself. She’s learned her lesson not to force things with him since Valentine’s Day.

Instead, she looks into the packed bar to find Tarble and sees him talking to Caulifla.  Seeing their usual babysitter reminds her that Trunks is having a sleepover tonight with Goten and Gohan.  Chi-Chi hates parties and has opted not to come. When she had pressed her, she said that she wanted a “private” reunion with Kakarrot and so it was Bulma’s duty as her friend to send her nothing but eggplant and peach emojis.

“I remember when I was twenty-one and freaking out about relationships,” Raditz says with a chuckle. “Mostly ‘cause my boyfriend fucked my brother.”

Turles snorts into his nearly empty cup and elbows him in the side.  It’s clear, then, that he has no idea that Tarble has a boyfriend because why would he?  Bulma, though, bites her lip. Tarble’s young, but that’s. She shudders thinking about it.  She doesn’t know 16 very well, but she knows how  _ she’d _ react if she found out that Vegeta was sleeping around behind her back and, well, it wouldn’t be pretty.

\--

Raditz wasn’t raised to be rude, but he also has spent the last four months with his band and Kame Kami and, truthfully, he’d rather be with Lapis tonight.  He pushes away from the overcrowded table to seek him out in the crowd. Several people have left, escaping into the chill of the Late October night to get out of the hot bar.

Luckily, Lapis isn’t one of them and he spots him drinking another margarita by the bar.

“Hey.” He leans down to kiss him.

“Hey,” Lapis tosses his hair back and returns it. “What did everyone have to say?”

He passes him his drink and Raditz licks some salt off of the rim.

“Just talking about shit we did on the tour.”

He opts not to tell him what his sister said while drunk.

“Oh!  Apparently Vegeta’s brother slept with Cabba while we were away.” He laughs.

Lapis blinks at him slowly. “What?”

“Yeah.  They hooked up and Tarble’s freaking out--I’m only six years older than him but I feel so much older with this overreacting shit.”

Lapis tips the last of his drink to his mouth and drops the plastic cup on the bar.

“Excuse me.”

He moves past him and Raditz looks at his retreating back, confused.  He isn’t that drunk himself so his mind has the capacity to fire on mostly all cylinders to figure out exactly what happened.  Did he miss something?

Opting to follow Lapis, he finds him approaching Tarble who’s in the middle of a conversation with Kakarrot.  Lapis walks up to him and shoves Tarble roughly with both hands.

“Hey, asshole,” he snaps. “Where do you get off?”

Tarble looks like a deer in headlights.  Kakarrot, mediator he is, steps in and holds his hand out.

“Hey, hey, what’s wrong?”

Lapis balks at him. “What’s wrong?  What’s wrong is that he fucking cheated on my best friend.  That’s what’s wrong!”

He makes another move forward but Raditz, thankful he’s the more sober of them both, moves quicker and catches him around the middle.  Tarble continues to stare wide-eyed, mouth agape.

“W-who told you?”

Raditz winces. “Oops.”

How was he supposed to know that Tarble had a boyfriend?  Judging by Lapis’s announcement that it was his best friend, it had to be 16.

“You have a boyfriend?” Kakarrot asks, equally surprised.  Then he perks up. “Oh,  _ that’s _ why you were freaking out about sleeping with Cabba!”

Lapis thrashes in his arms, trying to break free.  Raditz is grateful for his larger size and strength--not to mention his comparatively greater sobriety--that he can keep a hold on him.

“Why is Lapis trying to pound on Tarble?”

Raditz curses under his breath.  Vegeta’s elbowed his way through the crowd, holding a drink.  One eyebrow is cocked and his posture is deceptively relaxed. He knows him, though.  This is exactly how he would look before turning around and punching someone in the face at the show because he trod over his feet too often or whatever.

“I might have...told him about Cabba,” he says with a wince.

“You are such shit at keeping secrets.”

Tarble turns to him. “You’re one to talk!”

“You never told me not to tell anyone.”

“It was implied!”

He whirls back around to Lapis.

“I know, I screwed up.”

Lapis wriggles in Raditz’s arms again and he tightens his grip.

“Babe,” he says. “Let’s get you something to drink to sober you up and just  _ try _ not to hit Tarble?”

“Why should I?”

He sighs.

“Because if you pound on Tarble, Vegeta’s going to kill you and then I’m going to kill him and then Bulma’s going to kill me so let’s save everyone a lot of statements to the police and just get you home and get you some water okay?”

He stiffens for a moment before relaxing his limbs.

“Fine.  Let’s go.” He glares at Tarble but doesn’t make another move.

“Don’t tell 16 before I can,” he says in a small, pathetic voice.

“I wouldn’t do that to him,” Lapis says, “But do it fast.  If you’re leaving him, don’t string him along.”

His words are still slightly slurred so Raditz takes the opportunity to swoop him back up into his arms and leave the bar.

_ Christ, _ he thinks.  _ We aren’t even home a few days and people are already popping off… _

\--

“Well,” Bulma says once they’re safely in the shut door of their bedroom. “I guess it wouldn’t be you guys if there wasn’t almost a fight.”

Vegeta makes a sound through his teeth and strips his shirt off.

“Think Tarble’ll be okay?” she asks.

He shrugs and starts in on his jeans.

“Probably,” he says after a minute. “He’s better off than me.  He just needs to figure his shit out. What he wants.”

She rounds the edge of the bed and captures his face between her hands.  Comically, she pushes his cheeks together before easing up on her grip and kissing him.

“You’re getting better at this big brother thing,” she says.

“I’m trying.  I’m.” Vegeta closes his eyes and curses lightly.

She kisses him again.

“I missed you,” she says. “I don’t know if I’ve actually said that yet.  I don’t like when you’re away.”

He grunts and kisses her again, flicking his tongue out to trace the shape of her lips.

“With all this,” she says, “I’m glad I never have to worry about you.”

“Worry about me with what?”

“Cheating.”

Bulma reaches up trace her index finger down the rise of his cheekbone, down the line of his jaw.

“Oh?”

“Yeah.  First of all, I trust you, but also because you can never spit out what you’re thinking, every little thing you can’t express is written all over your face.” She kisses the tip of his nose.

He grunts again and pulls her closer, hands wrapped around her waist.

“And I’m not a fucking moron.”

Bulma laughs. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.  You think groupies don’t go after all of us?” he asks, lifting a brow. “But any time one comes close, I just think of you and Trunks and picture your face in my head because, if I fuck up, that’ll be the last time I see you.”

This is the thing about Vegeta that frustrates her and thrills her at once.  She thinks she has him figured out and is used to him being cagey about his feelings, he comes out with something like this that absolutely floors her.

“You never stop surprising me, you ass,” she says and wraps herself around him to begin the kissing again.

She pulls him down onto the bed, intent to show him how much she missed him and how much she appreciates him.  She only hopes that Tarble has actually fallen asleep and won’t hear them.

**Author's Note:**

> as always, feel free to hit me up at http://vertigoats.tumblr.com


End file.
